She got up and followed him to the counter hanging back at the corner as he went through his drawer which was clearly pushing the limits of an extension charm. He looked so eccentric pouring over all of his bottles and vials she smiled, bemused. It was shocking that anything other than Hoyer populated his mind when it came to her given their history with the composer. Of course she was curious what he thought of instead but there would be time for that later.
Smiling as he set the vials in front of her she hesitated for a moment before picking up the first. The gold flecks catching the light as she fiddled with the stopper. As soon as it was open she knew it was a perfume, the scent catching her immediately. Carefully she raised the stopper, it's end saturated by the perfume, towards her nose. Inhaling her eyes fell closed for a moment. Rich, deep, sensual. It was lush. When the word sexy popped into her head she was less alarmed than when it had appeared earlier in the evening. "Mmmmm" was all she could manage as her gaze flickered back to him. "It's..." she inhaled again, "Luxuriously sensual," she was unaware that her cheeks were flushed. "I love it," she said reluctantly returning the stopper to the vial. "Perhaps when I come by after work on Friday you'll tell me how you learned to do this," she smiled slyly at him. Farren had no idea what was on her calendar that her assistant would have to cancel. He'd said to tell him when she was free. This perfume had made that choice for her, Friday.
Setting the perfume down she reached for the second bottle. When he'd been handling it a green glow had appeared within the liquid but now it seemed to be plain. Open it away from her, she had been directed and as she handled it the liquid started to take on a shimmering glow and a lilac hue. Cupping it in her hand she smiled looking down at it. "Curious," she said bemused glancing up at him to make sure he didn't seem alarmed it wasn't green again.
"Here goes," she said, moving to pry the lid off, facing it away from both of them. Something shot out of the bottle and she shrieked in surprise, laughing at herself for being so surprised. A bright pink swirl of shimmer and sparks filled the air above them. Beaming, stunned she glanced over at him before turning to look up at the fizzing sparks and shimmering ribbons of sparkles that had shifted back to lilac now. In awe she reached up to touch some of them laughing as the little sparkles tingled against her fingers. Her face turned up to the ceiling she watched as the shimmers slowly fizzed down towards her, disappearing instead of landing on any of the surfaces. "Declan..." she said still watching the sparkles going off over their heads, "Wow..." she turned to admire them from another angle, leaning back against the counter beside him.
When they all fizzed out she stood in stunned silence for a moment. For a moment she wondered if he'd planned literally every second of this. Of course he hadn't but it was too lovely an experience to just be random wasn't it? The ball of anxious nerves in her stomach seemed to have settled again. The mead was making her warm and fuzzy, at least she chose to credit the mead. "I don't know if my dreams can hold a candle to this," she said looking back at him. "This is.....incredible," she said, almost sighing.
Standing next to him, a smile still on her lips, she thought. Not many people asked her these kinds of questions. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time anyone had cared to ask her these things. There were a few things that came to mind but she wasn't sure. "If I'm honest.....no one really asks me this," she said softly, still turning a few things over in her mind, "I suppose what first comes to mind is the music room at Dalemain. I have a grand piano sat next to huge windows. I can sit for hours and play, the sunlight streams into the room, the view out over the grassy hills is perfect. I can't think of anything that makes me happier." It was quaint, she knew that, but she wasn't trying to be cute. Under the grandeur and money and position she was still a girl who grew up on what was essentially a farm.
Her expression was distant as her mind swirled with thoughts. She could drink on this question but she didn't really want to. It was nice, someone asking her real questions about herself and who she actually was. "I have this recurring dream a lot of the time. It's always night. I'm alone walking through some kind of field or wild flowers or something like that. I'm alone, it's dead quiet except the wind. Then I get to the water. Usually there is a dock, sometimes it's a pebble beach. Everything is very calm. I walk to the edge of the dock. I take off every stitch of clothing I have on and climb into the water. Then I walk and walk through the water until it's up to my eyes and then I start swimming into the open water and I just....keep swimming."
Biting her bottom lip she stared down for a moment. She'd been having this dream for years now. It'd started when she got married and never stopped. When it'd first started she thought it was about escaping her marriage, maybe it was. After Clive died she thought it would stop but it didn't. She didn't put too much stock in dreams, but the fact that it never stopped made her think whatever she needed hadn't been found.
Finally she looked back at him and offered a small smile. Everything about this evening was wonderful. "Maybe I should have drank on that one," she teased softly. "I'm tempted to abandon my questions and demand to test every bottle in that drawer," she grinned, eyeing the drawer. "But....I suppose I may see a lot of that at the shop. "So....what is something that always makes you sad? And....or rather.....what is one of your favorite memories?"